Peninsulans in the News

Israel Stanley, screen-grab from 7News.

Former Charger Owns and Runs OB’s Sunnie’s

Like most San Diegans, former Chargers player and Point Loma resident Israel Stanley grew up eating good Mexican food. Today, he’s sharing his love of the cuisine with his community, one dish at a time, at his family-owned restaurant. Stanley owns and operates Sunnie’s in Ocean Beach, a Mexican café and taco shop on Point Loma Avenue. Sure, he’s the Black owner of a Mexican café (and likely the only Black-owned taco shop in San Diego), but he doesn’t consider Mexican culture his adopted culture. “It’s just my culture,” he told NBC 7.

You see, Stanley knows good Mexican food. He’s a San Diego native and, by his count, has been eating Mexican food “for the past 36 years.” “Me being from San Diego – and 20 minutes from the border – I was privy to very good food,” he explained. “Growing up here, I had a lot of Latino friends, very close friends – from then and still to this day – and I always had very good Mexican food.” 7SanDiego

OB Dad and Son Set Up Foundation for Mexican Surfers

Areck Madden and his son Cole, who works at Ocean Beach Surf & Skate Shop, have helped to set up a foundation to donate surfboards and accessories benefiting less-fortunate wave riders south of the border through the shop. And it all started with Areck and Cole encountering a Mexican surfing dad-son duo on a recent Baja trip.

“They just felt inspired to help kids down there who don’t necessarily get the opportunity to learn to surf, or can’t afford to buy a board to learn on,” said Madison Martin, OB Surf & Skate office manager, about how Mi Sueno (my dream) Foundation originated. “We were surfing in San Jose Del Cabo (20 miles from Cabo San Lucas) and Cole met another local kid, who turned out to be on the Mexican national surf team, and they started surfing together,” said Areck. “I met the kid’s dad. We all formed a bond right there on the beach: We made a connection.”

“We spent the whole next day with 16-year-old Luis Ochoa who was very well-spoken,” noted Cole, a Point Loma High School junior. “I was surprised by just how much love this kid had for the ocean, and how special surfing was in his life.” For more go to San Diego Community News Group.

Kaylee McLaughlin

Local Makes ProBiotic Drink

Kaylee McLaughlin started from scratch 5 years ago. The Point Loma woman is married to a Navy guy and is a mother of three who set out to create her own beverage, which has now become Kaylee’s Culture. McLaughlin said the initial spark was her devotion to healthy food for her family. “I made my own baby formula and baby food and anything you can think of I made from scratch,” said McLaughlin. Mixing it up in the kitchen lead to an idea.

“My focus was probiotics,” said McLaughlin. “So, I decided to just add probiotics to water. And I sweetened with monk fruit and fruit essence to make it taste good. But just something really simple and functional. Something that we all need.” San Diego 10News

Point Loma Nazarene Student Goes Florist

The pandemic has made it more difficult for local college students to break into the industry they want to work in. A student at Point Loma Nazarene University is overcoming that by starting her own business and she’s hoping to get a big boost on Valentine’s Day. “Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, so I have a few orders,” said Fiona Huerta. Huerta is a junior at PLNU who is dedicated to her studies, but lately, she’s also been occupied with her new passion: designing floral arrangements.

“I always bring flowers for my friends. I always bring arrangements for my friends’ birthdays and stuff and then recently I kinda put the word out to more people and have started getting orders,” said Huerta. Huerta has been having trouble getting internships because of the pandemic. She’s not alone. Many young people are entering a job market that has been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. The unemployment rate is nearly 10% for people between the ages of 20-24 according to the U.S. Department of Labor. For more, go here.

C2 Musician Started in Garage Off Cape May Ave.

“In the late 90s, I hooked up with a band and we practiced in a garage in the alley of Cape May,” Tuckwell explained. “It was called Blue Orange. We had fun. We played Dream Street, The Pour House, and Winstons a few times. We were like Nirvana meets The Beatles. At that point, I had switched over from playing drums and was doing vocals. They liked the English accent with the Squeeze/Beatles kind of thing. These guys were kind of like heavy Les Paul guitars and sweet harmonies. It worked. We did a couple of self-produced CDs. That was out of Ocean Beach.” San Diego Reader

Point Loma Advocates Sports Arena Switch to Mira Mesa

Point Loman Scott Mac Laggan got his letter to the Union-Tribune published on Feb. 13 – a letter that said the “That “big shiny, new arena” needs to be in Mira Mesa.” His letter continued:

You quoted Todd Gloria as saying, “Everyone knows the traffic in that area is rough.” As a lifelong resident of Point Loma, I can assure you that “rough” is an understatement and it will only get worse. Mira Mesa is 20 miles north of the current sports arena and is the population center of San Diego. It is served by four major freeways — north, south, east and west. Building a new sports arena in Point Loma will make Kevin Faulconer’s Ash Street debacle seem minor. No NBA team will ever move to San Diego if its fans must fight miles of surface street gridlock to get to and from the new arena. A “chance to think bigger” means relocating to Mira Mesa. Feed and water that.

OB Co-Founder of Plant Swap App

“Everyone wants the Philodendron Pink Princess … that’s one that almost every single person wants in their collection,” said Brian Feretic, an Ocean Beach resident who co-founded the plant swap app Blossm last year. “They’ll sell for — just like a single leaf with good variegation — can be (approximately) $200,” adding that the Monstera Albo Variegata is another expensive purchase trending among plant collectors. San Diego Union-Tribune

Cesarina Mezzoni

Cesarina Gets More Notice

Cesarina Mezzoni was only 20 years old when she and her husband, Niccolò Angius, made the decision to move to the United States in 2015 from their native home in Rome, Italy. The couple who started Cesarina Ristorante in February of 2019 in the Point Loma Heights neighborhood gets more notice. Cesarina has been buzzed about in the San Diego dining scene since its inception. The caliber of food, the ambiance and the hospitality has elevated Cesarina to the top of everyone’s must-try list. “We were definitely surprised that it happened so quickly,” Angius said of the restaurants early success. “We always had a strong belief that if you work hard and you believe in what you do, things will work out. But it was incredible how it happened. We were not expecting the restaurant full like that after a week, but it was incredible how everybody adapted to it. As for what makes the restaurant stand out among many other Italian eateries in San Diego? For Mezzoni, it’s all about the pasta. Pacific

Local Photographer Is Old School – Took Photos of Stadium Being Demolished

Bobby Sarmiento lives in Point Loma now, but he grew up in Crown Point, and the stadium was a big part of his life. “I attended a variety of events. Of course, the Padres, and the Chargers, and the San Diego Sockers when they played there. They even held a camp there for kids that I went to, and so I actually played there a couple of times in the early ’80s. A variety of musical concerts: Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, The Rolling Stones… the last one was Pink Floyd in the late ’90s. Besides that, there was super cross; I didn’t go to the monster truck events. But outside the stadium in the lot, they had car shows and other cultural events, and I went to those.” Of such moments are memories made, and of such memories, a life. SD Reader

Bringing Real Chinese to Point Loma

Nancy Qu always wanted to own her own business. She just never imagined it would be a restaurant, having had little prior experience. But when Westy’s Bar & Grill at 1029 Rosecrans St. became available, she took on the challenge. “I came here (U.S.) for grad school on a full scholarship,” said Qu, a Chinese native. “I was studying communications, then went to business school before getting a job as a marketing analyst. I’m a bit of an entrepreneur. “I’m a foodie by nature. I love food. But the only experience I had was working one month one summer as a waitress at an Asian buffet.”

Qu moved to San Diego with her husband where he got a job with Qualcomm. She had been working for three tax seasons at Intuit Turbo Tax when the Westy’s opportunity arose. “I wanted to buy a business and that one was close to where we lived,” Qu said. “We bought this business and made it Chinese. I know the Point Loma area, and there really isn’t a Chinese restaurant that’s not fast food, isn’t Americanized, and promotes Chinese culture.” Though the ambiance of Qu’s restaurant, Shanghai Bun, is Chinese, it’s subtle and not overt. Peninsula Beacon

Flash Back to OB Beach Party

I found out about a beach party from my friend Bonnie. It was in Ocean Beach, the same day as the street fair. Trying to find parking at 2:00 p.m. sucked. I made the trek to the beach with Bonnie and her husband Randy. We got lucky after driving around for 20 minutes, seeing someone pulling out of his spot. We set up our chairs by the keg. I overheard someone say, “Damn, that’s a good idea.” Randy is training for a triathlon, and he ran into the water to swim a mile. …

I overheard one lady on her cell phone trying to give her friends directions. “We’re right by the lifeguard tower. There’s a volleyball net here, too.” We were given the same directions, and that description can apply to a lot of areas on the beach. …

Cops on quads came over, and they were asking questions about the beer. I wasn’t paying attention, as I was talking to another couple. When I turned around a few minutes later, I saw they had cuffed a young kid. They said something about underage drinking, grabbed 30 cans of beer, put on some latex gloves (not sure why that was necessary), and started opening and dumping out the beer. Everyone watched in horror. The other officer asked for someone to produce the receipt for the keg. I asked someone nearby why they’d want that and was told it was to prove it wasn’t stolen. For more – see San Diego Reader article by Josh Board.